


walk all day with you

by skateboardstepdad



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Mentions of Anxiety, Mentions of Messy Divorce and Parental Abandonment, Mentions of Transphobia (vague), Slow Burn, it's happy n cute i promise, she hates him for no reason, trans percy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-05 14:02:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14620170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skateboardstepdad/pseuds/skateboardstepdad
Summary: He started as an abstract.(Annabeth wants a reason to hate him, but she's coming up empty. Title from Moose Blood's song of the same name.)





	walk all day with you

He started as an abstract.

She'd seen him on the school Instagram before, grinning in a swimsuit with an arm around a coach or equally tall and handsome boys. The captions detailed the university's winnngest swim team in history and the captain that led them to one victory after another.

She didn't care.

Then, there he was again, this time in a shirt, grinning with friends-of-old-roommates, then friends-of-friends, then finally with her actual friends and current roommate (Hazel), until her timeline was 90% him. If she wasn't so goddamn stubborn, she'd've learned his name by that point.

She didn't see him in person for several weeks, until she went to Piper's a cappella concert and there he was, smiling it up in the tenor section. He was easy enough to ignore until it came to the concert's finale, where his gentle-yet-strong voice came through on lead.

He seemed so open when he sang, not unkind, but far more vulnerable than he did when joking around (which appeared to be his default state). His eyes met hers, and they seemed to tell Annabeth "I'm who you've been looking for," and just for a moment, she allowed herself to put down the meaningless and unwarranted wall she had erected between them.

It was in that moment that she realized she had a giant crush on him.

However, not one for romantic epiphanies, she repressed it. That is, until, second semester rolled along, when she realized her mythology analysis course only had twelve people in it - and he was one of them. Thankfully, Hazel was another, and Annabeth thought she would be her shield - except Hazel was friends with him.

This unfortunate situation did not come to light until he stepped into class one minute before the start and Hazel frantically waved him over to where she was sitting...just one seat away from Annabeth.

She was so highly aware of him (right on the other side of her very slight friend, Jesus Christ, she could reach around and touch him if she so chose), she could barely hear the professor's rundown of the syllabus - and Annabeth absolutely  _loved_  a good syllabus.

Once the class was over, extremely polite Hazel went out of her way to introduce her friends immediately.

"Annabeth," she began sweetly. "You haven't met Percy yet, have you?" Annabeth just shook her head, rooted to the spot. "Oh well, then, this is perfect! Annabeth, this is Percy. Percy Jackson, meet Annabeth Chase."

"Hey," he said, leaning forward and extending his hand with an easy smile. She shook it. "I've heard a lot about you. Nice to finally meet you."

"Good things, I hope?"

"Only the best. You know, 'she's a genius, she's beautiful, she's amazing.' I've only known you for a few minutes, and I think I'm going to have to agree."

If he had been any other charming and handsome boy, she would have blushed. She almost wished he was.

"Clearly you can't agree if you barely know me."

"Maybe we should change that. Would you like to get coffee sometime?"

And with that, Annabeth uttered the words she'd regret for a very long time to come: "No thanks."

x

"Jesus fucking Christ!" she cried, mashing her face into a pillow.

"What happened?" Piper asked, not even bothering to look up from her laptop.

"I'm stubborn, that's what."

"Oh, is this about the Percy thing? Hazel texted me. Why are you being weird?"

"I don't know! I really don't. Tell me terrible things about him so I feel less bad."

"Well, he's disastrously disorganized."

"Oh yeah?" A spark of hope gleamed in Annabeth's brain-

"Yeah. He went to visit his mom and sister out of the blue for a week and didn't tell any of us."

And with that, it was dead. Nothing Piper said could make her like him any less. Not his dislike of Chopped, not his strange obsession with blue food, not even the fact that he only owned one pair of shoes, that he had had since he was 16. All the things that should have made him awful only endeared him to her. So, instead of doing the reasonable thing and apologizing for her rudeness, then taking him out on a date, she decided to ice him out even more.

It was no easy task.

Now that Piper was aware of Annabeth's feelings for him, she kept inventing ways for them to meet. She dragged Annabeth to random clubs, dining hall tables, and patches of the quad, hoping that Annabeth would stop being obstinate. She didn't.

It wasn't until 8:00 am on a Tuesday morning (bright and early for the mythology course), when he showed up in his pajama pants with one extra large coffee, which he set down in front of her.

"Hazel texted me," he said, offering his explanation. "I heard you're both sick? Gross."

"Yep," she sniffled. "I'm just slightly better, so I told her I'd take notes and she could sleep."

"You're a good friend," he told her. She just shrugged and nursed her coffee.

x

The next time she saw him was that Friday. She and Hazel had made full recoveries, so they decided to go to an on-campus party.

It was an hour in, and she was both drunk and alone. She had no idea where Hazel had gone, and while she knew a few if her other friends were there, she couldn't seem to locate a single one. That's when she bumped into him.

"Percy!" she cried, the alcohol in her system making it impossible for her to hide her feelings. He seemed surprised to be getting this reaction from her (to say the least).

"Hey," he replied. "You doing okay?"

"Better now that you're here."

He laughed in response. "You're a slick one, Chase. I like that."

"I think I've got some other qualities you'd like," she said with a wink.

"You're probably right," he agreed. "I do love a girl with an organized sock drawer. However, I get the sense you're in no condition to be showing it to gentleman callers at this point in the evening. Let me walk you home?"

She nodded, and they made their way out of the frat house. The walk was mostly uneventful, except for when they saw a squirrel eating out of a bag of chips and Annabeth skipped right over laughing at it to crying at it. Percy still managed to get her through it, and ultimately, up to her dorm.

He sat her down on her bed and pried her shoes from her feet, then puttered about the room, gathering water and Advil to set on her bedside table. 

"Perce," she said sleepily, reaching out to him. "Sit with me." And who was he to refuse that? So he sat on her bed, propped himself up on a pillow, and carded his fingers through her hair.

x

She woke up from the best sleep she had had in months in an empty bed. She didn't know why she felt so sad about it. 

**Author's Note:**

> hey so hope u enjoy!! im gonna post the second part asap
> 
> percy is trans in this au. i based whole "ftm college swimmer" thing off of @pinkmantaray on ig. it's really only relevant in the second part, but he's about three years post op and 9ish years on t.


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